Officials of La Pointe Iron Co., one of the owners of the property that Gogebic Taconite unsuccessfully sought to develop as a massive open pit mine, met with local representatives in Hurley to discuss reviving mining plans.

Milwaukee County

Abele backtracks on Mental Health Complex medical director

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele shifted course this week, retracting his announcement from five days earlier that the medical director at the Mental Health Complex was leaving his job after a patient death there.

Thomas Harding no longer will retire immediately, contrary to the county executive's announcement last Friday night of a shake-up of several staffers at the complex.

Abele and his spokesman attributed the reversal to a "misunderstanding" and "miscommunication."

"The broad point for me was that we had an incident at (the complex) and we responded," Abele said. "We held them responsible."

Abele's announcement by news release Friday said he had accepted the retirements of the medical director and a nurse practitioner and the resignation of a doctor. He also said the director of nursing at the Mental Health Complex had been demoted.

Those moves were linked to changes imposed after the Oct. 6 death of 25-year-old Brandon Johnson from complications from a broken neck. Multiple investigations are under way into Johnson's death.

Abele didn't list the staff names in his news release but acknowledged that the medical director reference was to Harding.

He said Wednesday that he acted after meeting with top administrators at the complex and based on information he had at the time.

"There may have been a misunderstanding about who" the changes would affect, Abele said.

Abele spokesman Brendan Conway said Harding had indicated that he was planning on retiring fairly soon anyway and had offered to do so sooner over the patient death. After news reports on his departure, many staffers at the complex and others called to urge that Harding be allowed to stay, Conway said.

"The message remains the same," Conway said. Abele "is not going to sit on his hands while there's reforms taking place."

Johnson's death was one of at least five this year at the complex, which came under fire in 2010 over patient sexual assault and other care lapses.

Abele's announced staff shake-up also came as the Journal Sentinel learned that state and federal regulators had investigated the July death of 57-year-old patient Paul W. Haugan, which resulted in the county being issued citations for lapses.